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British deployment detailed
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Around 3,300 British Forces Will Deploy to the South of Afghanistan This Year
(Source: UK Ministry of Defence; issued Jan. 26, 2006)
In a statement on 26 January 2006, Mr Reid said that the dangers of military action in Afghanistan paled in comparison to the risks Britain would face if the international community allowed the country to become a sanctuary for international terrorism again, and that abandoning Afghanistan was simply not an option.
As part of NATO's expansion into Southern Afghanistan, a task force based around units from 16 Air Assault Brigade will deploy to Helmand Province.
Their task will be to provide a secure and stable environment in which the reconstruction of Helmand can take place.
Addressing the House of Commons on 26 January 2006, Mr Reid said:
"Whatever the difficulties and risks of this deployment – and I do not hide them from the house or the country – those risks are nothing compared to the dangers to our country and our people of allowing Afghanistan to fall back into the hands of the Taliban and the terrorists. We will not allow that. And the Afghan people will not allow that."
Next month an advance party of an additional 850 personnel drawn from 39 Regiment, Royal Engineers and 42 Commando Royal Marines will deploy with three CH-47 Chinook helicopters to Helmand to build an encampment prior to the arrival of the main deployment.
As announced in June 2004, the UK will also be deploying the Headquarters Group of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, to take command of the NATO International Security Assistance Force for nine months from May.
Mr Reid added:
"Last September, I saw for myself the real hope that the international community has brought to a new generation of Afghans. The hope that at last the Afghan people can rebuild their country. The hope that Afghanistan can take its rightful place as a country where men and women alike can live in peace and freedom with real hope for a better future.
"We cannot risk losing these achievements. We cannot risk Afghanistan once again becoming a sanctuary for terrorists – we have seen where that leads, be it in New York or London. We cannot ignore the opportunity to bring security to a fragile but vital part of the world. And we cannot go on accepting Afghan opium being the source of ninety per cent of the heroin on our streets. For all these reasons, it is in our interests, as the UK, and as a responsible member of the international community, to act."
SELECTED BACKGROUND NOTES:
The Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team will work with UK officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development to deliver a tailored package of political, developmental and military assistance. Specifically, its mission will be to help train the Afghan security forces, to facilitate reconstruction, and to provide security, thereby supporting the extension of the Afghan Government’s authority across the province.
The Helmand Task Force will comprise elements of the Headquarters of Colchester-based 16 Air Assault Brigade, and airborne infantry battlegroup. Based initially around the Third Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, it will incorporate a force of eight Apache Attack Helicopters, provided by 9 Regiment, Army Air Corps, the first time we have deployed this impressive new capability on an operation. 9 Regiment will also supply four Lynx Light Utility Helicopters while 27 Squadron, Royal Air Force, will provide a detachment of six Chinook Support Helicopters.
Other major units and capabilities include Scimitar and Spartan armoured vehicles from the Household Cavalry Regiment, a battery of 105mm Light Guns from 7th Parachute Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery, a battery of Desert Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicles from 32 Regiment, Royal Artillery, 13 Air Assault Regiment and 29 Regiment of the Royal Logistics Corps, 7 Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and 16 Close Support Medical Regiment. We shall also deploy four additional Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
We aim for these deployments to be fully operational by July this year. The total size of our commitment will fluctuate over the next few months but will peak, briefly, at around 5,700 before reducing to under 4,700 as the engineers building the camps in Helmand, and, on current plans, our Harrier GR7 detachment, withdraw in July and June respectively. Our forces will then comprise those needed to command the ISAF, some three hundred troops engaged in support and training tasks in Kabul, and the Helmand Task Force. Predominantly, they will be Regular troops. There will be, however, a small number of Reservists, most drawn either from the Royal Regiment of Volunteers or the Fourth Battalion, the Parachute Regiment.
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